‘US Persons’ in Canada Express Fear and Loathing

Gwen, who moved to Canada when she was five years old and has never had a U.S. passport, called Canada's complicity with FATCA "a literal betrayal." She maintained the country in which she was born, but has no meaningful ties, is "plundering" her retirement savings with an "absurd law."

How many people in Canada are effected by FATCA?

Canada's 2011 National Household survey pegs the number of people in Canada who were born in the U.S. at 316,000 (including 67,000 in B.C. and 32,000 in Metro Vancouver). But that's only a small portion of the people in Canada who are caught up in FATCA's sweep, which forces Canadian banks, upon pain of dire penalties since July, to pinpoint any client they have in Canada who the U.S. might consider a broadly defined "U.S. person."

"U.S. persons" not only include those with dual passports or those working in the U.S. The term may take in Canadian "snowbirds" who spend winter months in places such as Florida and Arizona. It snares Canadians who own a condominium in the U.S., have post-office addresses in the U.S., earn revenue from U.S. sources or have other financial links to the country.

Dual American-Canadian citizens are finding themselves in a serious bind due to FATCA, which has been dubbed “the worst law that Americans have never heard of.” See this interview with one of the potentially millions of people who are having their lives ruined because of FATCA.